Easter, the most important Christian holiday, is approaching, days full of water, Easter eggs and good food. Easter is not only a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also a celebration of the coming of spring. This year you can celebrate it together with us in Donovaly. We have prepared for you a stay "Easter full of traditions", which will take place from 17. - 21.04.2025. Easter stay with a rich program for young and old. From Thursday to Sunday you will be awaited by a rich animation program, Easter egg hunt, knitting corbets, creative workshops, baking sweet treats and much more. Children and adults will definitely not be bored! On Friday you can enjoy a children's theatre, on Saturday workshops await you, where you can try traditional crafts, bake a Christmas cake or create your own wreath of dried flowers. In the evening, after the workshops, we will be glad to welcome you at the Lobby Bar, with live music for a glass of wine. On Sunday we have prepared a family competition in cooking mutton goulash under the supervision of chef Andrej Róth. On Monday, everything will culminate with the traditional Easter frolic and dressing up.

In our country, the Easter holidays are marked by the traditional dressing-up, painted Easter eggs and braided cornets. Do your little ones want something creative? Join us in knitting a simple Easter cake out of willow wicker or making an Easter egg for the whole family to enjoy.

If we want to knit a classic Easter cake, we need a wicker, and of course the most ideal wicker is made of willow, which you can find growing near water or a stream. Today, however, you can also buy wicker in markets or in front of the department store.

We will need at least nine rods for the corbac itself, but bring some extra. Soak the rods in water for at least half an hour before knitting. However, they will be fine for a few days before we start knitting the corkscrew.

Procedure:

1.To begin, choose eight long rods and join them together.

2.The ninth rod will be used for fastening, and we will also make a handle out of it. Cut the rod in half lengthwise to make it thinner and easier to handle. First, place it in the middle of the eight rods and make the first thread towards the cut ends.

3.Make the second thread on the opposite side in the direction you will be knitting the corkscrew. Continue in this way until you have enough length of rod. Finish the handle by braiding the ninth rod between the others so that it does not twist.

4.The handle can be shortened with secateurs. If you want to make the job easier, an easier way is to use a flexible piece of wire/rope to wrap around the rods.

5.At this point we start to get entangled. We have chosen the popular and easy knitting "christmas knitting". We divide the rods in half. Fold the first rod over the next five rods from the top, insert it under the second rod from the left and return it to the right side. Do the same with the first rod on the opposite side. Continue in this way with the first rod until you reach the end of the bucket.

6.When you have finished, secure the other end with twine or thin wire and decorate with ribbon.

And if you want to get a bit more colourful with the children, you could try making Easter Easter Eggs. It's up to you whether you choose real eggs that you laboriously blow up, polystyrene, plastic or create colourful paper models that you cut out. In this creative work you can involve the kids individually or feel free to join the whole family. Just prepare tempera and acrylic paints, markers, colored/crepe papers, glue and you can start creating unique Easter decorations with your little ones.

However, if you want to take Easter egg painting to the next level, you can try colored wax, decoupage and scrapbooking, which will especially appeal to older children. Alternatively, prepare bags of small rocks, salt or rice, which you colour with food colouring and carefully place the eggs in the bag, where they will colour unevenly, creating an interesting mosaic on the eggs.

You can paint on them various geometric shapes, flowers, animals or create other sub-worlds by gluing artificial eyes or you can wrap them with coloured threads or rope. You can also glue ribbon ears on the finished Easter eggs and hang them on a golden rain or put them nicely in a basket. Thanks to this laborious preparation, the only thing left to do is to wait contentedly for Easter :)